Bargi, A Dam of discontent

TNN | Updated: Nov 18, 2018, 9:36 IST

Bargi water is yet to reach the beneficiaries

SATNA: For three assembly constituencies in this district – Raigaon, Nagod and Rampur Baghelan-- the main issue is the unfinished Bargi Dam project. On Friday, people from 40 panchayats of Raigaon assembly seat declared that they will boycott the assembly polls. “For 27 years, we have waited for the Bargi dam water to irrigate our fields. The BJP government promised to complete the project by 2012. This is 2018 and still there is no water,” said Pehari Singh, president of the Jal Andolan Jan Andolan Samiti. “The project was started in 1974 and till 1991, as much as 2.45 lakh hectare land was brought under irrigation in the state.” A survey was done from 1991 to 1995 to bring 885 villages of Satna under the irrigation project. “From 1991 to 2018, they cannot get past a 12 km tunnel,” Pehari said. Interestingly, it was none other than BJP candidate from Nagod seat Nagendra Singh Nagod, who as former minister for water resources in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, had initiated the project to bring Bargi water to Satna district. “I accept Bargi water is a genuine demand of the people,” Nagendra Singh told TOI. “But the project has hit a technical snag. We have been told that a tunnel of hard rock, 150 feet below would be dug for the water to reach here. The project was approved, but instead of hard rock, they found soft boulders.” Nagendra Singh Nagod left the government to contest Lok Sabha in 2014 from Khajuraho seat. He is presently MP but has been fielded from Nagod assembly seat which he won in 2003 and 2008. As minister, he held several portfolios, including water resources. “We had imported a US-made machine to cut thorough the hard rock which cost about Rs 150 crore. But the soft boulders clung to the machine and became impossible to drill through. So work was stopped for a year or two. Then the contractor asked for more funds because for the soft boulders, a second machine had to be imported from Germany. Funds of around Rs 100 crore was cleared by finance department but it took time,” the former minister said. According to the former minister, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government also faced problems because the contractor kept asking for more funds. “The tunnel project was started in 2007 and should have been completed by 2013. I have not been in this government for the past five years,” Nagendra Singh Nagod said. “Work is going on. About five to six kms have been drilled and dug, another six kms remain. But I understand people are desperate for water. There should have been more coordination between state and the contractor. Had there been administrative and political will, this project would have been completed by now.”

Facing a tough battle over water scarcity in his constituency, Nagendra Singh Nagod is promising completion of the project in three years if BJP comes to power. “I am assuring the people that if elected, the the project will be completed in three years,” he said. But for Congress, this is an issue to raise and question the BJP government’s efficiency and intentions.